Crypto Artist Auctions Fractions of Michelangelo’s Masterpiece as NFTs

Pak, currently the second-highest-grossing crypto artist in the world, has just launched their next non-fungible tokens (NFT) auction, titled “The Creation.” And this time around, they didn’t even have to create anything—instead, that job was delegated to Michelangelo and the bidders themselves.

“Art creates collectors create creators create art,” Pak curiously tweeted yesterday, hinting at the upcoming auction.

Yeah, it’s a bit complicated.

According to metrics platform CryptoArt.io, Pak is currently the second-most profitable crypto artist in the world as his NFTs have been sold for roughly $5.2 million combined.

The main attraction of the drop is Michelangelo’s most famous artwork, “The Creation of Adam.” The original, physical fresco painting made by the Italian artist currently forms part of the Sistine Chapel's ceiling—as it has been for half of the last millennia.

For the auction, Pak has digitalized “The Creation of Adam” and cut it into 560 (35 by 16) different tiles, each represented by an NFT. Collectors are invited to bid on any piece of the artwork they want, and when a tile is successfully auctioned off, it will be revealed on the collection’s main token contract called “CREATION.”

NFTs are a special kind of blockchain tokens designed to be unique and not interchangeable. Unlike “common” digital assets, each NFT is one-of-a-kind and can’t be replicated, ensuring its scarcity and collectability. Any digital data can be embedded within an NFT—such as artworks, for example.

“While Pak is behind the concept of this artwork, the actual ‘creators’ here are the collectors themselves. In this case, the collecting/creating experience is equally, if not more, important than the ‘creation’ itself,” Aisha Arif, community marketing and growth specialist at digital marketplace MakersPlace, told Decrypt.

She added that Michelangelo’s classical masterpiece was intentionally chosen for this dynamic structure to encourage thought and dialogue centered around the question “Who is the Creator?”

“The final visual artwork will feature only the tiles that are collected, any tiles that are not collected will remain black in the final creation. In this sense, the collectors are also the creators,” she added.

But what if collectors will buy every single tile of the artwork, thus turning it into an exact replica of Michelangelo’s fresco and robbing it of the meaning embedded by Pak? To avoid this, all tiles have a global minimum bid amount that increases with the beginning of every 20 new tile auctions based on a Triangle Number progression.

“This payment structure has been put into place to ensure that not all tiles are purchased since, eventually, the minimum bid amount will increase to a very high price point,” Arif explained, adding, “Only those 560 tiles live on this contract and only the collected tiles will be minted. The rest will not exist.”

NFTs will be minted in the order in which they are collected and each token will be sent to the winning bidder subsequently. MakersPlace will receive the standard commission of 15% of the proceeds while the rest will go to Pak. The auction will last for 72 hours.